Everyone You Love Is in Adam McKay's "Don't Look Up"
A film about the end of the world? It's hitting a little too close to home right now
If Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio warned you the world was ending, would you listen?
Considering the fact that Leo has been crusading about the environment for years — okay, Climate Crisis King — between switching out his various 20-year old girlfriends and not much has changed, the answer is probably no.
This question is the (kind of) fictional scenario that serves as the plot to Adam McKay's Don't Look Up, a satirical, dark comedy which kind of hits a little too close to home. The new Netflix teaser trailer makes that abundantly clear.
The movie is about the end of the world. Most films in the "apocalyptic" genre fall into one of four categories: psychological thriller filmed in bad lighting; blockbuster summer action film featuring lots of explosions and the latest Hollywood heartthrob playing a character whose defining traits are loyalty and guns; slapstick comedy with a goofy but lovable set of underdogs as the heroes; or the classic fantasy horror film where zombies or some other monster beget the end.
Don't Look Up is in a league of its own.
The film follows two low level astronomers — Leonardo DiCaprio sporting an atrocious beard and Jennifer Lawrence sporting atrocious bangs — as they find out a comet is heading straight to earth. But instead of chaos and action ensuing when they warn the President — played by Meryl Streep with Jonah Hill as her son … who is also Chief of Staff — absolutely nothing happens and no one believes them.
Like Anthony Fauci or Al Gore, the pair are faced with trying to convince everyone they're in danger while Leo has panic attacks in the bathroom and JLaw — relatable as ever — anxiously drinks glass after glass of wine.
Known for his work on Vice, The Big Short, and more, Adam McKay promises to deliver a smart, funny satire, especially armed with the impressive ensemble cast that includes … literally everyone.
If you're not watching it for the plot, which would be valid because we're living it, there's someone for everyone in the giant cast.
Only flashes of most of the film's big names make it into the teaser trailer — but just a glimpse is enough.
Ariana Grande, who was known for acting on stage and in Nickelodeon's Victorious, makes her first major silver screen appearance, alongside Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi, another musician turned-actor. But that's not all! Not even close!
Our dear darling Timothee Chalamet makes an appearance — proving, as Dune and The French Dispatch also make their way to us, that he loves a good ensemble film — as does the inimitable Cate Blanchett, the king of chaos, Tyler Perry, and icon Ron Perlman, amongst others.
Don't Look Up meets us in the (not quite) post-pandemic era and its message seems more prescient than ever considering the combination of human ignorance and natural disasters that we've faced just in the past year.
But when Jonah Hill lists the "end of the world" meetings his character has had to sit through, we also can't help but think of our communal apathy and disaster fatigue. "Drought, famine, hole in the ozone — it's so boring," he laments — and we shiver because it's frighteningly true.
When the end of the world comes, the movie makes us question, will we recognize it? Probably not, telling my Leo's bathroom panic attacks in the trailer — which I imagine he does at home when he thinks too hard about the climate crisis. Us too.
Celebs: They're just like us!
So while it seems maybe a little too morbidly fitting to watch a movie about the world ending as people pretend it isn't, with that cast, of course we're going to watch it anyway.
The movie will be released in select theaters on December 10th, then make its way to Netflix on December 24th.
Watch the trailer now: